TEN JACK TEN

While the defeat of Proposition 87 disappointed folks like Robert Redford, Julia Roberts and Ben Affleck, it probably stung producer Steve Bing the most — at least in terms of his wallet.

A real estate heir who has put his money to work financing movies as well as political campaigns, Bing contributed nearly $50 million of his own money to the Yes on 87 campaign, supporting a California ballot initiative that would have taxed oil producers to raise $4 billion for alternative energy research.

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Big business still hasn’t figured out the internet. Used to be, when you sicced your lawyers on someone, it was a personal thing between the threatener and threatenee. Now, when you threaten a website, it’s a schoolyard fight and everyone forms a circle to see what happens.

So, it comes to pass that the ESA wanted to get a story about a t-shirt parody of their ratings image (Your Mom Is Rated “E” for Everyone) off the gaming newsblog Kotaku. They threaten through their lawyers, Kotaku publishes the threat, and all of a sudden there’s more publicity for the parody than ever. Nice work, counselor.

Follow the link and see the shirt that the ESA would like to suppress, and the letter from the ESA’s lawyer.

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The Simpsons hasn’t been very funny lately. In contrast, South Park hasn’t lost its edge.

Hardback books are overpriced, even at half off.

Wal-Mart is a miserable place to shop, and the buck or two more I might spend at Target is well worth it.

Every day of your life is a gift and should be enjoyed as such. Even if all a particular day does is get you to a better day down the road.

Children are not being taught how to behave themselves in public, and society keeps getting worse as a result.

R.E.M. started going downhill soon after they left I.R.S.

I have very few heroes, and most of them are people who have created something out of themselves through their own effort and force of will.

I tend to admire people who have qualities I lack.

When a band releases an album with old tracks that never made it to an album before, it’s a sign of trouble.

The highest compliment one human being can give to another is apparently “woooooooo!”

The price of being ignorant and uneducated is rising every year due to enhanced productivity by those who are neither.

Saturday Night Live hasn’t been very funny lately. In contrast, MAD TV hasn’t lost its edge.

If you are unable to accept people as they are, then you will have a very difficult time having satifying relationships with people.

Whataburger kicks ass. So does In-N-Out Burger.

Being on television must be the most validating experience a person can have, since people don’t seem to care how unflatteringly they are protrayed once they’re on the air.

Toys R Us doesn’t know what the hell it’s doing, and will probably be bankrupt within five years.

Brown shoes go with everything.

I’m starting to not see a point to watching ABC’s “The Nine.” I just don’t think the concept is working.

If you haven’t seen it, the show’s about nine hostages taken in a bank robbery and how it affects them. The gag is that we weren’t allowed to see what happened during the hostage situation, and we’re having that info released to us in dribs and drabs over the course of the show. The trouble is, everything that’s happened after the hostage situation is uninteresting, miserable, or both. They threaten to quit their jobs, they worry about their medical issues, they have dinner together, etc. Wow, it was even boring to type that last sentence.

It’s basically a show about post-traumatic stress disorder. We get to watch these people suffer, complete with flashbacks. What kind of sick bastard would find that enjoyable?

Unfortunately, the primary factor undermining the show is the premise of the show. The characters’ motivations supposedly emerge out of the period of time we haven’t been allowed to see. This prevents the viewer from having an understanding of their motivations, and thus prevents the viewer from sympathizing with the characters.

So, all we have left is watching a bunch of weirdos and jerks suffer. I think I’ve talked myself out of watching.

I’ll leave the concealment to your imagination, or the story.

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If you’ve ever taken used games to Gamestop or used books to Half Price Books, you’ve experienced the negative sticker shock when they tell you just how much they’re willing to pay for your stuff. Selling used goods is a high-margin business for a lot of reasons, especially in the retail game sales, where prices are highly volatile.

But a screwjob is a screwjob, and the new company Goozex is looking to make game barters available to the masses over the internet. Easier than eBay, hopefully more lucrative than the pittance Gamestop and Electronics Boutique are offering.

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PS: I’m not endorsing it, I just think it’s an interesting business start-up.

I’ve been run into by a Suburban twice in the last four months (nothing too severe, though).  I’m starting to think that drivers should have to get special licenses for these behemoths.

RPG lovers have been looking forward to Atari’s Neverwinter Nights 2, a PC game based on the Dungeons and Dragons license. The game’s supposed to be a simulation of the whole dice-rolling, monster-slaying D&D experience. Ziff-Davis’s online games site 1UP posted a review that basically stated that the game was average (5 of 10) for just that reason.

Perhaps that’s a valid area for discussion, whether the genre is played-out, etc., but RPG lovers went nuts. The review gets pulled. And the editor of Games For Windows (formerly Computer Gaming World) explains the story behind the pulled review.

Joystiq has preserved the original review here.

I am not the millionth visitor to your website.

If a pair of pants has belt loops on it, then you should wear a belt with them.

Jesus would have remained childless, had no possessions or place to live, and wandered the earth preaching, healing, and performing mircales. Chances are, you won’t do that.

The worst advertisement for American cars is an American car more than three years old.

Microsoft will eventually drive the world to open-source software.

The Rolling Stones haven’t made a decent album since “Tattoo You.”

You will never sell anything to me by telling me I can finally get something I deserve. Heaven help us all if we get what we deserve.

Daytime television is designed to drive anyone with a bit of sense to get out of the house and get a job.

Robin Williams stopped being funny a long time ago.

You shouldn’t break a $100 bill unless you absolutely have to, because it will all get away from you after that.

Sony makes the best televisions. JVC is a close second.

Of course the media’s biased. Everybody’s biased.

Patience solves more problems than it causes.

Quality-wise, it doesn’t really matter which company you buy gasoline from.

Extended warranties are usually a rip-off, except for used cars and cutting-edge electronics.

The conventional wisdom is often wrong.

People who throw lit cigarette butts out of their cars should be dragged out and given the Rodney King treatment.

Any business founded on screwing the customer when you can get away with it deserves to be driven out of business by a business that won’t. American Airlines, meet Southwest. Blockbuster, meet Netflix. Car dealers, meet the internet.

Ideally, Microsoft would like to rent you software, and you’d write a check each month to pay your software bill, much like other utilities.

That’ll always be the dream, but they’ve had a setback on the road to nirvana. Turns out that people hate the idea of buying their own damn operating system again when they upgrade.

On Oct. 16, Microsoft issued the new user license for Vista, including terms that would have limited the ability of those who buy a boxed copy of the operating system to transfer that license. Under the proposed terms, users could have made such a switch only one time.

However, the new restriction prompted an outcry among hardware enthusiasts and others. Microsoft is returning the licensing terms to basically what they were in Windows XP–users can transfer their license to a new PC an unlimited number of times, provided they uninstall and stop using it on the prior machine.

The software maker said it paid attention to the response both directly to the company and on blogs and decided to reverse course. Microsoft had hoped to use the change to aid its ongoing efforts to thwart piracy.

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Babs keeps being not funny, and her audience keeps not liking it. 

Barbra Streisand had a drink lobbed at her Monday after a mid-concert skit poking fun at President Bush.  Streisand’s publicist, Dick Guttman, said a paper cup filled with some sort of liquid was thrown on stage but apparently did not hit Streisand during her second performance in this Fort Lauderdale suburb.

I’m probably going to smile for the rest of the day knowing that Striesand is having things thrown at her on stage because she’s such a twit.

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Former Oklahoma football players Rhett Bomar and J.D. Quinn must sit out one season, lose one season of eligibility and pay back thousands of dollars they received illegitimately from a campus job in order to have their eligibility restored, the NCAA said Wednesday.

Bomar has to cough up about $7400 to a charity in order to get his eligibility back.  Seems light for as much damage this guy has done to the Oklahoma program.  But then, maybe playing for Sam Houston State is its own punishment.

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